Sunday, July 24, 2011

Alaska Vacation - Day Three

The first morning on the ship and everyone wakes feeling pretty refreshed, except for me. I am feeling queasy. Motion sick. Gross. A bit barfy. For those of you who know me, you know that I can be barfy, especially in the mornings! This particular morning I was especially queasy. Looking at the water sent me reeling.

I put on these two SeaBandacupuncture wristbands I had bought at Wal-Mart and they worked like a charm. I was feeling better almost instantly. They didn't look so cool, but I loved the SeaBands!

We had breakfast in the Horizon Buffet. It is where we ate every meal for seven days. I came to hate the Horizon. The smell of it. The look of it. The boys loved it.

We toured around the boat some more. This is the moving sidewalk to the disco lounge at the back of the ship. We only visited during the day - we weren't up for partying at night.

They had a great view from up here.

Looking down at the water. Oh God, I am going to be sick.

Back to our balcony, where we looked out, not down.

A little hot tubbing!

This was a full day at sea. We were full steam ahead to our first port in Juneau in the afternoon the next day. I think in all we went over two thousand miles. That is FAR!

Cokes at the bar. A thrill from day one all the way to day seven.

And Ping Pong! Have I mentioned Ping Pong! We played the heck out of some ping pong. There were two tables and we played them frequently, but not often enough for Chip.

We made our way out to the upper decks where the weather was actually very pleasant.

Water, water, water....every where there is water. No land. Lots of water. The ocean is big. Very large. Very watery. Huge. Enormous. Water as far as the eye can see.

It is a just a little bit disturbing.

Then we would periodically see something like this. We know it is something. But what????

We found our way to the Princess Theatre again for a talk by the on-board naturalist.

His dad was a pro NFL player for the Cleveland Browns or something. He moved to Alaska to study Orcas and had lived there forever. We called him Mike whatshisface. He told us what to look for in the ocean.

The spouting! The whales come up and shoot water 20 - 25 feet in the air when they come up to breathe! We were armed with knowledge and dangerous now!

The Russians spinning in the Piazza! Wow!

We played a little Shuffle Board. Is that the right name for it? I think so.

It was fun.

It was a little breezy outside on Deck 14.

But the boys didn't care.

It was Mom and Dad against the boys. I think we lost. I think for sure it was my fault.

Chip was taking this seriously!

Then we saw it! Our first spouting! It is in the bottom right hand corner of this picture. A whale spouting!

OMG!

So exciting.

Chip could have cared less.

If that whale was not going to throw itself up on the ship or at least breach and do some twisting jumps, well then he would just as happily play ping pong or something.

We were hard core whale watchers the rest of the afternoon! I happily marked number 11 off my life list! I have seen a whale in the ocean! It was magnificent!

Then it was formal night on the boat. We are rednecks and not so good with formal night. Here is the family shot with the big "LOSER" symbol on our forehead. It still makes me laugh to look at it.

We tried, but we just can't pull off smart casual very well. Chip wore jeans and his "formal crocs", Harry looked like Squidward, and me with my SeaBands on! It was just too much.

I got so tickled before we walked into the Horizon Buffet that I had to collect myself in the stairwell. I thought the boys were cute as can be, but it was certainly not Formal in the Golden Princess world.

Little Chipster with a big piece of rice stuck to his face.

His formal crocs under the table.

After dinner, we went to a Comedian/Hypnotist show. It was very funny.

Can you see my cool light blue Seabands? They rocked.

Chip liked the Hypnotist. We saw lots of people on the boat all through the week that were in the show.

After this really long day at sea, we hit the bed about 10:00! Couldn't wait to get to Juneau!